An Implantable Medical Device (IMD) is a medical device designed to be chronically implanted in a human or other organism. Some IMDs include sensors to monitor a patient's condition, and some IMDs have been used to treat a patient. Some examples of IMDs include implantable cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices such as cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter/defibrillators (ICDs). Other examples of IMDs include a number of monitors or sensors, stimulators and delivery systems for both cardiac-related applications and non-cardiac-related applications.
The sensed data from the IMD is capable of being wirelessly communicated to an external device, and the external device is capable of wirelessly programming the IMD. For example, data from an implantable CRM is capable of being wirelessly communicated to a programmer device. Additionally, the programmer is capable of wirelessly communicating with the implantable CRM to program the CRM to perform a desired device function.
Due to the potentially large amount of data capable of being sensed by one or more IMDs, it is desired to appropriately process the large amount of sensed data to provide meaningful and timely information to provide health-care information. The sensed data alone may not be an accurate indication of the overall health of the patient because other factors can significantly influence the sensed data. Thus, it has been proposed to use patient data from other sources. However, this patient data can compound the problem of providing meaningful data, and still may not provide an accurate and timely indication of the overall health of the patient.